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Vote: Nominees - Science & Innovation

Swati BedekarIn a country where some villages still consider menstruation a taboo subject, Swati Bedekar, 51, embarked on a mission to empower illiterate and poor women with knowledge on menstrual hygiene. Swati established Vatsalya Foundation in 2014, which under the brand name Sakhi, manufactures and distributes sanitary napkins at a minimal cost of Rs 2. Thanks to her efforts, more and more women have started to switch over to sanitary napkins from cloth pads. But the revolution posed a new threat. The discarding of used napkins proved to be a challenge in the rural areas. The used napkins when thrown in the open posed a serious health hazard. Swati then worked towards creating an incinerator that would aim at fulfilling three objectives: cost effectiveness to enable increased affordability, easy operation and zero use of electricity. The result was Ashudhinashak, an eco-friendly incinerator made from concrete and clay that could be used to burn the used napkins. It turned them into coal and ash without spreading smoke thus preventing foul odour and airborne spread of bacterial diseases. Today, there are more than 1,000 such incinerators in Gujarat and they have also been transported to other states. They come at a cost of Rs 1,500 unlike the electric incinerators that cost between Rs 18,000 and Rs 22,000. Thanks to Swati’s efforts, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan officials in Gujarat have observed a rise in attendance of girls in schools where the incinerators have been installed.

Dr Sathya JeganathanDr Sathya is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Chengalpattu Medical College in Tamil Nadu. The lack of equipment and trained manpower in India’s rural hospitals is one of the major reasons for issues like infant mortality. Dr Sathya, in her quest to deal with this problem, came up with the idea of a cheaper, easy-to-maintain warmer after the state government failed to supply incubators on time. Dr Sathya mobilised local village carpenters and electricians to make a low-cost incubator, or infant warmer where premature babies can be kept to regulate their body temperature. A traditional incubator costs up to Rs 1 lakh. The doctor now has a provisional patent for a modified device which could cost up to Rs 15,000.

Shalini KumariMoved by the plight of her grandfather, who after meeting with an accident became dependent on walking aids, 12-year-old Shalini Kumari designed an innovative adjustable walker. This is the first innovation made by a child to be prototyped, fabricated and commercialised with the aid of the National Innovation Foundation, India (NIF), headquartered in Ahmedabad. NIF recently signed an agreement with Kaviraa Solutions for the non-exclusive manufacturing and marketing rights of this walker. For her innovation, Shalini also won an award at IGNITE 2011, an annual student competition, where she received the award from former president APJ Abdul Kalam. Shalini’s walker has a spring and self-locking front legs, which enables the physically weak to climb stairs. The company plans to produce 10,000 such walkers. A patent has been filed in Shalini’s name for the product and she will be getting royalty for each product sold.

Hemani KaluchaLast year, 16-year-old Hemani Kalucha, a student of Dhirubhai Ambani School led a team of students to build a robot to simulate a human action. Hemani has been actively participating in robotics competitions since she was 12. Her most recent project AR-Jen refers to an ‘archer robot’ who mimics Arjuna (from the Mahabharata) hitting the eye of the fish. She said in an interview, “It explores Indian mythology by taking the wonders of human capabilities and attempts to decode and replicate it using the laws of physics and motion engineering. AR-GEN is special because it helps connect people through stories, something which is not a typical application of robotics.” Hemani’s project won the Indian Robot Olympiad (IRO) 2012 securing her and her team the second position at the National level after which she went on to represent India in the junior open category of the World Robotics Olympiad, held in Malaysia. Her robot was also displayed at Techfest 2013, one of Asia’s largest science and technology festivals, in IIT Bombay. The young roboticist was invited to share her experiences at the prestigious TEDxGateway talk as well.

Lavina Mahbubani27-year-old Lavina Mahubani is a gold medalist from National Institute of Fashion Technology. Lavina is the co-founder of a startup called Lumos Delign Tech in Bangalore which has developed a technology that can turn your backpack or briefcase to a mobile charger. The backpack has an in-built battery that can store the solar energy and can charge your smartphone and other USB-based devices like MP3 players, bluetooth headsets, etc. The water-resistant fabric of the bag guards the electronics against rain and saltwater. The product is priced at Rs 4,999. In the past, Lavina has represented India at the prestigious World of Wearable Arts, New Zealand.